Ewer with vines and peonies (katakuchi)

During the course of a formal tea meal (kaiseki), the host may offer his guests sake, an alcoholic beverage made from rice. This is a more intimate procedure than the serving of a bowl of tea, with the host leaving his mat and moving from guest to guest in order to pour sake directly into their lacquered cups. This splendid ewer is decorated with the three-leaf hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa family, which ruled Japan from 1600 to 1868.